Inner Urge: Joe Henderson

Inner Urge was the fourth of five 1960’s Blue Note sessions with Joe Henderson as leader. They are all strong sets, ranging from his bossanova flavoured debut to the adventurous Mode For Joe, from this saxophonist who never seems to quite get the credit he merits.

Inner Urge showcases Henderson as the sole horn in this quartet with two members of John Coltrane’s band and Bob Cranshaw who worked with Sonny Rollins. Just over a week after this recording session, drummer Jones and pianist Tyner would be back in the same studio working on Coltrane’s ground-breaking A Love Supreme.

Henderson had become a sought after session player in the short period since he had appeared on the New York jazz scene. He had been mentored by veteran trumpeter, Kenny Dorham and played memorable solos on Lee Morgan’s Sidewinder, Horace Silver’s Song For My Father and on Grant Green’s Idle Moments.

The sleeve notes disclose that the title track was written to capture some of the frustration and anger experienced by Henderson as he struggled to come to terms with the pace of his life in New York City. Certainly, there is a sense of relentlessness about the playing and McCoy Tyner’s piano playing is a mercurial journey along his keyboard. Inner Urge is a standard repertoire choice these days (as you will learn if you search the title on YouTube) and this YouTube choice will allow you to form your own view, if you are not already familiar with it.

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Next up, Isotope, is a well-crafted musicians tribute to Thelonious Monk, with a playfully jumpy tune which offers great scope for the soloists improvisations.

El Barrio is a further high point on a fine set. In his sleeve note interview, Nat Hentoff, ever skilled at drawing out something more from his subject, records that Joe Henderson told him of his love of Spanish culture and studied the language as a child. Not surprisingly this tune has a Latin feel and Joe Henderson is trying to create a soundscape that evokes a picture of a Spanish community. It sounds great.

The set closes with two tunes from other composers. Duke Pearson’s You Know I Care is a beautiful ballad, which shows that Henderson can play with great sensitivity. Cole Porter’s Night and Day had been covered by both Sonny Rollins and Stan Getz in the months before Henderson put down this version. This tune was one of the ten top revenue generating American songs of all time and Henderson’s version is fairly ranked amongst the best jazz covers of it.

So there we have it, Inner Urge is well-worth tracking down and the critics love it, as do I. If you are an aspiring jazz musician the title track is almost certainly one you will be required to study and learn to play the changes on. This is another set from an artist who never seems to disappoint. Buy, beg or borrow it with confidence of a rewarding listening experience.